CVE-2026-31665 PUBLISHED

netfilter: nft_ct: fix use-after-free in timeout object destroy

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.03.2026 Published: 24.04.2026 Updated: 24.04.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfilter: nft_ct: fix use-after-free in timeout object destroy

nft_ct_timeout_obj_destroy() frees the timeout object with kfree() immediately after nf_ct_untimeout(), without waiting for an RCU grace period. Concurrent packet processing on other CPUs may still hold RCU-protected references to the timeout object obtained via rcu_dereference() in nf_ct_timeout_data().

Add an rcu_head to struct nf_ct_timeout and use kfree_rcu() to defer freeing until after an RCU grace period, matching the approach already used in nfnetlink_cttimeout.c.

KASAN report: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in nf_conntrack_tcp_packet+0x1381/0x29d0 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881035fe19c by task exploit/80

Call Trace: nf_conntrack_tcp_packet+0x1381/0x29d0 nf_conntrack_in+0x612/0x8b0 nf_hook_slow+0x70/0x100 __ip_local_out+0x1b2/0x210 tcp_sendmsg_locked+0x722/0x1580 __sys_sendto+0x2d8/0x320

Allocated by task 75: nft_ct_timeout_obj_init+0xf6/0x290 nft_obj_init+0x107/0x1b0 nf_tables_newobj+0x680/0x9c0 nfnetlink_rcv_batch+0xc29/0xe00

Freed by task 26: nft_obj_destroy+0x3f/0xa0 nf_tables_trans_destroy_work+0x51c/0x5c0 process_one_work+0x2c4/0x5a0

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to c458fc1c278a65ad5381083121d39a479973ebed (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to c581e5c8f2b59158f62efe61c1a3dc36189081ff (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to f16fe84879a5280f05ebbcea593a189ba0f3e79a (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to 070abdf1b04325b21a20a2a0c39a2208af107275 (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to aa7cfa16f98f8ec3e6d47c34e1a8c1ae4b9b8b77 (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to b42aca3660dc2627a29a38131597ca610dc451f9 (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to d0983b48c10d1509fd795c155f8b1e832e1369ff (excl.)
  • affected from 7e0b2b57f01d183e1c84114f1f2287737358d748 to f8dca15a1b190787bbd03285304b569631160eda (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 4.19 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 4.19 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.253 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.203 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.169 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.135 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.82 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.23 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.13 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References